Hi-Tech Park Opened IT Academy for Kids in Orsha

On April 22, the IT academy for kids "Compass" was opened at the Orsha District Creativity Center for Children and Youth with the support of the Hi-Tech Park. "Compass" has become the fourth regional IT academy opened with the support of the HTP after "NOTA" and "RITM" in Novopolotsk (in 2010 and 2013 correspondingly), and "Steps" in Lida (in 2014).

The IT academy in Orsha is intended to help kids and school students learn how to program as well as train school teachers in programming in Scratch. The academy will be a training center for teachers, with the first training course starting in August. The course is focused on the developed educational programs in programming in Scratch for school students.

Alexander Martinkevich, HTP Deputy Director: "Programming in Scratch will help thousands of Belarusian children discover the amazing world of logic, algorithms, and multimedia, introduce basic programming languages and support them in solving different tasks."

"The IT academy "Compass" will play a significant role in promoting programming in Scratch. Here, not only will school students be able to study information technology but also teachers will exchange knowledge and experience, and share ideas," said Andrei Zagursky, Head of the Department of Education, Sport and Tourism at the Orsha District Executive Committee.

The cooperation between the Education System in Orsha and the Hi-Tech Park started in 2009, when the IT Center was launched at the Department of Education, Sport and Tourism of the Orsha District Executive Committee due to the support of a number of HTP resident companies.

Today, specialists of the IT Center work with talented students of the district, conduct webinars and workshops. About 1,500 students in grades 9 and 11 take a career-oriented test every year to choose a profession.

The IT academy "Compass" opened its doors due to the sponsor support of the HTP companies Foranx, SamSolutions, Synesis, Atlantconsultsoft, iProved Software, CTDev, Vairon IT, Tectus Media, and Scand.